http://www.wlwt.com/weather/grid.html

WLWT has come out with a new weather page on their site. Amazing pros and a few cons. Let’s take a look.

The PROS:
The site is designed rather well which is a rare thing for their site as a whole (I won’t go into the struggling information hierarchy for the home page). The site is built with modules, probably done with AJAX, that you can move around and adjust as you like. It is a nice feature and seems to be well worth the time. The site remembers where you moved items so that when you come back, it is saved to your computer’s personal preferences. Nice WLWT.

The CONS:
The color palette is a little primary (read that as grade-school-ish) and very flat. The modules and graphics overall lack a depth to continue to pull you in to the experience. The “new” icons developed for the weather systems read poorly. A few people that I have shown the site to read the cloud with rain as a whale peeing. The ad space as well is obscenely huge and almost bigger than the weather application. That is disgusting. The site should kill the bottom advertisement and leave the skyscraper banner on the right (with the required “advertisement” verbiage tiny above it. In the future, the ability to turn off modules would also help on the 2.0 launch of it. As once you use the site more than once, the welcome module is unnecessary.

WLWT has come out with a great ground-breaking weather page on their site. I hope that they continue to develop it as a tool and a little less of a banner ad seller. Remember, advertising is OK in small doses, don’t overkill it and ruin the experience like the movie theaters did.

What is the quickest way to discredit yourself as a credible award show. Give yourself and your agency an award for the call for entries poster. Nice one RX Awards. You gotta feel good after that one.

A friend at work sent me this. How true. Credit to the original designer/poster.

The Prostate Cancer Foundation needs your help to better research.

The storm of Sunday September 14, 2008 was terrible. It was nothing but strong winds, but ended up causing a ton of damage. Duke Energy was quick to respond, but Time Warner has been terrible…

First, let me set this up a little better. It was Sunday, football day, you know, the normal. I was watching the Bengals get their asses handed to them like normal. During the first half of the game it was getting increasingly windy. During half-time, the power got knocked out. I sat for a while. Waited. Waited. Waited. Still no power. I went outside and ended up meeting a lot of the neighbors as they were all out and about. Trees had fallen and taken out telephone poles. It was out all day Sunday. I was bored. No power. No tv. No internets. It was out Monday, Tuesday, and most of Wednesday. It returned on Wednesday afternoon.

Thanks Duke Energy. I had power again. They had a great public message and some good representation to the public to say, “Don’t worry, we are going to work as fast as we can to get you back to normal.” Thanks.

Time Warner on the other hand has been avoiding any public message of service or quality. They have avoided messages to the news, unlike Duke Energy. It is the morning of day 9 (Tuesday) without cable internet service at the house and it is starting to get a little aggravating that I can’t even get an estimate on when they might come strolling through the neighborhood to fix the cable lines. Come on Time Warner Cincinnati. Get your but in gear and start some PR and be a little less clandestine with your customers. We pay you money and we know that it will take time to fix cable lines from the storm damage. Just give us some respect and let us know what is going on. Do I have to wait another month for cable service or what here?

* Update: It is the morning of day 10 (Wednesday) and still no internets at the house. Thanks Time Warner.

* Update: It is the morning of day 11 (Thursday) and still no internets at the house. Thanks Time Warner as my patience is gone.

* Update: It is the morning of day 12 (Friday) and still no internets at the house. Now I have called in the past and emailed them from work, so it was time to call again and I got through. They are coming to the house Monday afternoon finally, which will make that day 15 of no internets. Timely service, that’s Time Warner Cincinnati.

* Update: It is the night of day 12 (Friday) and there are finally internets at the house for no reason at all. Thanks Time Warner, I actually mean it this time.

* Update: Now that I have the internets again, all is well. I have been talking to their customer service department via email and they are crediting my account for the outage. Thanks for the quick email responses. It helps to restore some faith in Time Warner Cincinnati.

Alright Old Spice. You win. I have seen your ads — your Will Ferrell Semi Pro ads, Bruce Campbell ads, and Neil Patrick Harris ads. You win. I will give the rejuvenated Old Spice a try. You have been working so hard to change the public’s perception of Old Spice from ‘your father’s brand’ to a youthful edgy brand. You have me. I tried your products and here is my review:

Old Spice High Endurance Deodorant Pure Sport
This deodorant is actually pretty good. It has a good manly smell and seems to last for quite a while. It does more smell masking than a clinical strength deodorant that acts as more sweat prevention. Still pleasantly surprised though.

Old Spice Body Spray Pure Sport
This body spray isn’t too bad. It smells nice and manly/sporty. It seems to last for quite a while without being overpowering, and it has a slightly less chemical/alcoholesque smell than Axe. Give it a try for change of pace from your usual.

Old Spice Red Zone Body Wash After Hours
This body wash is ok. It has a good manly smell, although it doesn’t lather up as much as other body washes, which is a little disappointing. It does seem to work alright. Maybe leave this one off your shopping list.

And now for a quick non-Old Spice update. I purchased a new bottle of cologne of Calvin Klein Eternity for Men Summer this past weekend. I still has the same great smell as last year except this year seems to have a tiny bit of lemon or something added to it (or maybe it is just me). Either way, I still love it.

To start off, first I am not a follower of Joss Whedon. Second, I am a fan of Neil Patrick Harris’ work. Third, I am not normally a fan of musicals but can easily be persuaded to sit down and watch the Sci-Fi channel.

On that note, I randomly found “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog” on the iTunes store watched the first one. I loved it. So I downloaded acts 2 and 3. Awesome!!!!! It is a great mix of nerdiness, musicals, science-fiction, and super hero action.

The premise: Dr. Horrible (Neil Patrick Harris) is an up-and-coming evil doctor that has his sights set on taking over the world and joining the Evil League of Evil with his roommate Moist. His arch-nemesis, the cheesy hero, Captain Hammer (Nathan Fillion) is constantly thwarting his efforts to take over the world. Meanwhile, Dr. Horrible is trying to work up the courage to talk to his dream girl at the laundromat (Felicia Day). One day the three of them collide and calamity ensues.

I love the balance of the nerdiness and the super-hero action. ”With my freeze ray I will stop… the world.” Also, btw, I love that Bad Horse rules the league with an iron hoof. Go watch it. You won’t regret it. “What a crazy random happenstance.”

The power of technology is to use it when it is needed. If you have the ability to make t-shirts from text headlines… coolness. That is a nice tech feature if you are the Onion. Then there is CNN. You are freakin’ CNN, a “real” news source. You shouldn’t be pawning off t-shirts on your news site that say headlines such as “Teen Knife Killings Rise in London.” Really??? They should really take that down and just sell that technology and code to the Onion. I would buy a t-shirt that says “EPA Didn’t Know Anybody Was Still Drinking Water” way more than one that says ”Teen Knife Killings Rise in London.” Failshirt!!!

CNN tshirt failure

CNN tshirt failure in multiple colors!!! SWEET!!!

Once again, an update with some grooming products reviews.

G7 Power Scrub
I bought this on sale from the GAP. It is a volcanic ash face scrub. It is terrible. It smells like old people and if playdough could go sour. I threw it away. Maybe that is why it was on clearance.

G7 Deodorant Spray: Mixed
I also bought this from the GAP. It is a deodorant body spray. It is actually pretty good. The scent dies off rather quickly, but still smells rather good. It costs $10 which is a little more than I wanted to pay, but it is potentially worth it.

Travel sized items
I also just went on a short trip and wanted to bring some travel-sized items. I bought: Gillette Fusion Hydra Gel, Crest Pro Health Mouthwash, Pantene Pro-V Daily Moisture Renewal Shampoo, Pantene Pro-V Daily Moisture Renewal Conditioner, Gillette Oil Control Face + Body Wash. All of them worked great. The only bad item was the lid for the Gillette body wash. It was difficult to get the cap back on once you had soap in your hands.